3-D Printing’s Great Leap Forward

Rapid prototyping machines (3-D printers) — which carve a model of an object out of metal, paper, plastic or starch – can now build moving parts, not just block models. University of California at Berkeley researchers are developing “flextronic” devices — or flexible mechatronics — a small model with flexible joints and electronic parts built in.

In 10 years, you might be able to fax a toy car to a favorite niece or nephew. It could even be sooner than that. The New York Times reported rumblings that Hewlett-Packard is planning to sell a 3-D printer for $1,000.